Finally! I rejoined society today after months of spending every minute of my free time in my 486 square foot studio, in front of a computer, with two animals. I have tickets to a lecture series through illahee.org and this evenings lecture was by Dr. James Tabor. He is well known for his historical research on several types of religion, including Christianity. I will absolutely purchase this book and read it when my academic life is a bit slower. He is very involved in studying the historical documents that influenced the formation of Christianity. Currently he is excavating ancient ruins in Jerusalem in search of cultural artifacts that could reveal additional information about Jesus Christ. It was fascinating and also opened my eyes to how much I don't know about this time in history. His observations and points were captivating, and I look forward to learning more. It is exhausting really when you think about all the things there are to learn about in this world. I'm tired just thinking about it. It is my bedtime.

If you are interested, check out his website http://www.jesusdynasty.com/ .

This is my life

I have to blog just one entry on the monotonous lifestyle that could very well drive me away from research. This really is a lot of behind the scenes, attention to detail, put your smart hat on and get ready to write some really dry text. Ugh! Even though this is my research and it is exciting, I really just can't wait to be done with the sitting in front of the computer part, while it is beautiful outside.

The good news is that I practically have a garden sanctuary behind my apartment building with a year round stream, vibrant bird life and a lot of squirrels who gladly partake in peanuts I put out for them. This makes my pets VERY happy. I guess I am my Mother's daughter!

Spring is a time for softball....

Spring is a time for softball. I don't have time for softball right now and I can't even commit to any teams with my trip around the corner. So, instead I daydream about Sundays filled with softball and barbecues. My daydreams are really what are getting me through this very stressful time. My most recent goal is to make recommended changes to my dissertation over the course of the next 2 days. This is a lot of work, but can be done with two "full" days of concentration and deprivation(predicted to be 70 and sunny tomorrow!). My cup is half full though. I see a bright future filled with good times, good people and great work! I'm actually really excited about what my professional future holds! Until then, I have dreams of future softball games and memories of games from the past. This pic is definitely a blast from the past. I LOVED high school fastpitch! Middle infield was my place! Someday soon, I'll get a chance to get back out there, only I won't be a student anymore. The end is near Beth!

Oh Sweet Hood!

Okay, I think this will be my last blog on one of my many trips to Mt. Hood. It is still snowing in the mountains (10 inches tonight!), but I'm not sure I will get up there for a while. Hopefully there will be glacier snowboarding in July!!! Anyways, these pics are among my favorites. I love Hood in the background.











This is an action photo of Heatherbee catching air off a jump (and nearly breaking her arm. Hopefully she won't kill me for posting this pic!). I LOVE SNOWBOARDING!

Starbucks with a view!

This was probably the most scenic Starbucks visit I have ever had, and I have been to a lot of Starbucks! Atlantic City, New Jersey Baby! I have more pics from my weekend trip, and will post them as soon as I get the good ones from another bridesmaid. Stay tuned....

St. Patty's 2008

St. Patty's day this year was an unexpected celebration for myself. My very good friend Jenny drove up from Philomath and invited me out with her friends Peter and Micheal. I was just going to go out for one drink and then back home to work on my dissertation. Well... it didn't work out that way, because the truth is that spending time with Jenny is SO MUCH FUN! So we stayed out, enjoyed good music, they enjoyed some guinness and we took advantage of the company of a few Portlanders. We decided that it was fun to have pics with all of our new friends to document the fun evening. We are so cheesy~

We had a BLAST! Unfortunately, the night had to end sometime, so we stopped for a VooDoo donut before retreating home. Yummy!

The next morning, we had breakfast at Genie's(Only the best breakfast in Portland) and Peter showed up right on time but forgot to run a comb through his hair. He fit right in with the rest of the ecclectic SE crowd.

We ended the day with shopping in the Hawthorne district. Jolly Ranchers and new cheap sunglasses. Portland is really growing on me.

Come visit me again Jenny and thank you for the much needed break from dissertation!

BFP(Blast From the Past)

This picture was not taken in the distant past. It was taken in '02, when my very good friend Jess and I went to Europe for 7 weeks. This was by far my favorite destination- Santorini, Greece. I posted this pic because I will be flying to the East Coast this weekend to celebrate Jess's shrinking Bachelorettehood in Atlantic City, NJ. We have had some VERY good times and I couldn't miss an opportunity to celebrate all the wonderful things that are happening in her life! Cheers JESS!

Friendly visit

I had my first friendly visit since moving into my little-itty-bitty studio apartment. Jadee and I snowboarded Mt. Hood and went out for a lovely dinner. It is always fun to hang out with Jadee! I'm reluctantly posting the first picture of us, because I think I look like Donald Trump, or at least I have his hairdo...eek...

Jadee also tore up the mt with her skills. Good times!

Family get-together

Isn't it crazy how families get together for weddings and funerals? We all hung out after Grandpa Mel's amazing Service at the Tahoma National Cemetery . As always, Megan and Will kept us all busy with their never-ending energy supply. Mathew was passed around, even though he wasn't feeling so hot. He was still cute as a button!


The following pic is of Will, Megan and my brother Dave (the greatest brother ever!)

Jadee also came over, since after all, she is part of the family. Jadee and I have been friends every since having Mr. Ellis's english class in junior high. We didn' t go to the same high school, but managed to room together during our freshman year at Wazzu! Go Cougs!!

I have to include this pic of Christian(my uber-cool nephew) and my sister-in-law's cat. This cat is special because it salivates... A lot.... All over you when you are holding her. She is such a lover and I think the intense cuddling makes up for the wet shoulder. Christian doesn't share my sentiments on this I guess..

I love you Grandpa Mel!

On February 7, 2008, my Grandpa Mel passed away. He was seriously one of the coolest people I have ever known. His ripe humor, cool kat attitude and smashing good looks made him one of the coolest g-pa's ever!

Grandpa would do anything for a good laugh. He was famous for his bathroom book collection, one of which was the Book of knowledge. It was a book full of empty pages.

In his later years, he really enjoyed the company of my dog Baby. Baby knew they were buddies and she would eagerly jump into his lap and endure his sometimes eye poking head rubs. Grandpa Mel- You are loved and Missed and will not be forgotten!

Another perfect day at Hood

Not much to say except that I had some exceptional weekdays on Hood this past season. The pictures explain it all!

For this trip, Heather and I caught a ride up to the mt. with a friend. It was a stellar day! Except the part where Heather smacked her head. She wears a helmet now.

Today was an odd day.....

I know that I said I was going to chronologically update my blog according to my photographic cataloguing.... but I'm going to sneak in one blog entry that describes my day, April 15th, Tax day. Three things happened throughout the course of my work day that were out of the ordinary and completely unrelated. My day started out the same as always, completely crazy, putting out fires, packing activity into every minute.

The first crazy thing that happened had me on the MAX train from Beaverton to Downtown Portland over the lunch hour. I had an appointment at the travel clinic, where I was to have a yellow fever vaccination. This turned into three shots, a soar arm and an unexpected credit card expenditure. YIKES!! Who thought staying disease and bacteria free was so darn expensive? It was a great consult and now I have Malaria pill prescriptions, back-up antibiotics, and bug repellent to purchase. Peru is just around the corner and my appointment today helped wake-up my urge to travel to far away destinations. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

The second crazy event of the day.... was helping to provide care to a gentleman in my program. Because I am larger in stature....uh hmmm... I help to provide shower care for a gentlemen. I dread this day. Not because I am opposed to assisting with personal care, but because it is difficult to see firsthand how dementia can change somebody's personality for the worse. Being punched at, kicked, and called names that I wouldn't say in front of my Mother, all while trying to derobe and wash somebody is a difficult task. Needless to say, once it is over, it is clear that being clean feels good. It is a difficult 1 hour and 20 minutes, but it absolutely continues to fuel my desire to help people with dementia, or better known in my dissertation and PWD!

Last event.... this has completely to do with my alter ego. When I was living in Corvallis, I was teaching college classes as part of my tuition remission and assistantship requirements. This included my first large class of 120 students in a large auditorium. Well, there are some new staffers in the building I work in and one of the younger gentlemen proceeded to tell me today that I was his teacher. Yep. He was in my first large class. This was absolutely mortifying to me, because I try and forget the fear that came over me before teaching in front of such a large audience and now to be reminded at work of all that... not cool. So the alter ego comes in because I realized on my first day of teaching class that if professors don't know what they are talking about, they have to fake and it fast! I did!

It was one of those days. Luckily, It was Karen's 26th birthday and so I took her out for beer and tatertots at OaksPark pub in Sellwood. Happy Day!

deep freeze

On this particular day, there was freezing rain first thing in the morning that had frozen on all the vegetation. The warm sun melted the layer of the ice and made for a beautiful day on the slopes. Not bad for my little point and shoot camera.

Life Changing Surgery!!

I should have posted a long time ago about a surgery that changed my life forever! In October, I drove up to Canada with my Mom and had Laser Eye Surgery. I finally realized that I didn't know what I was waiting for, and also I was worried about wearing contacts so much for the snowboard season. So, I did some investigation and found a surgeon in Vancouver, BC who had already done 35,000 procedures with no lawsuits or complications. Most people thought it was peculiar to head north of the border to have surgery, but the truth is that the Canadians have been performing this surgery for 7 years longer than the eye specialists in the states... Not to mention their technology is more advanced. So I set my date, and just did it.

The procedure itself, was not painful. I was terribly nervous and requested Ativan. This helped mildly. The office ran in a very professional manner, so when it was my turn, I went into the room and positioned myself on the table. He talked me through it, and it didn't cause any pain. The two things I remember were 1) the saline running down my scalp and 2) the burning smell of my eyeballs. One might think I'm crazy after reading that (the burning eyeball part), but the truth is that I left the operating room into the recovery room and watched without my glasses the person after me having the same procedure on the television monitor. It was RAD!

I had the PRK procedure, not the Lasik procedure. This meant that the overall integrity of my eye was better over time, but the recovery was more painful. This was confirmed as we left Vancouver and the sun shining into the car made my eyes start to weep. This didn't stop for about 3 days. Now I can safely say that had I not to driven back to Portland from Seattle and worked immediately after the procedure, it would have been a breeze. But, unfortunately, I had to collect data, go to work and drive the car. This was not advised by my Doc. Sorry Dr. Kirshner!

I recovered though and wish I had done it 10 years ago!

The picture is of the Madre and I having a dinner and wine after the surgery. Yeah, I know....

"I wear my sunglasses at night"... I looked like a dork, but I was feeeeelinggggg goood!

Blast From the Past (BFP)

I purchased a new camera this year and scored a fantastic printer/scanner/faxer wonder machine with my rebate. I have been only slightly obsessed with downloading pictures from the past. I think I will blog a bit about memories from the past. The first BFP worth noting is my history on the Mt.

This is a shout out to my Dad and Mom for being persistent in making sure that I was always able to get to the mt. to feed my addiction, even at the age of 5! To this day, I always tell little kids on the lift to thank their parents for getting them there! THANKS M&D!!

Oh yeah, I'm the little squatty one in these pics.

Hood River New Years '08

New years was a blast this year thanks to good friends and amazing mt. conditions! We packed up the car(dog included) and headed to Mt. Hood for a very memorable day of snowboarding.



After a long day of snowboarding, Heather, Summer and myself drove down the Mt. to Hood River. If you are not familiar with Hood River, it is a great rustic town in the Gorge inhabited by tons of thirty-somethings who are gearhead, adrenaline junkies. I just might move there some day. Unfortunately, most of my pictures from New Years are not of the amazing town, but of our social activities. Not bad for a little outdoorsy town.

We managed to get back out on the slopes after a long night and some slippery roads. All in all, the weekend was a complete success! Even Baby agreed!

Where does the time go?

The date is April 13th and I have not posted since Christmas of '07!! As much fun as it was to blog regularly, it fell short on my priority list, which included snowboarding, dissertation, and snowboarding. So- I will make an attempt to provide updates, as I have catalogued them with pictures to make-up for lost time!